The Washington Post discovers the open secret:

John D. Negroponte is to give a Capitol Hill briefing this morning on threats at home and abroad, as lawmakers express varying degrees of concern about whether he has moved quickly enough to establish his leadership as the nation’s first director of national intelligence.

Several members of Congress who played major roles in creating Negroponte’s job said that — while it is still too early to draw final judgments — they worry that he has started too slowly in working to lead and coordinate the government’s 15 intelligence agencies. They are particularly focused on whether, in his first 10 months, Negroponte has been able to exert effective control over the Pentagon, which under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is playing a growing role in gathering and analyzing intelligence.

Others also question whether Negroponte’s agency, once envisioned as a relatively lean operation, is becoming another bureaucratic layer that will make agile responses to threats more difficult.

(more shortly)

About the Author

Michael Tanji

Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.